Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Its definitely not. The humming goes away completely when the display (but not disk) sleeps. This is also when you notice just how loud the humming really is.

Its definitely not a mechanical noise, its an electrical hum. Like when you dim the lights in a room. The dimmer unit hums louder the lower the light level goes. Its exactly the same noise.

I have the same problem. When my brightness is all the way down you hear the humming and when its all the way up you hear it also. But half way its almost gone. I also got another humming/pitch sound at the back of my iMac. It looks like it's coming from the harddrive, like the fan of the harddrive or harddrive itself keeps rotating, i think it's the fan though because when i turned it off you could clearly hear the fan spinning and going off. Anyone has the some problem as me with the hard disk fan humming as wel l?
 
I have the same problem. When my brightness is all the way down you hear the humming and when its all the way up you hear it also. But half way its almost gone. I also got another humming/pitch sound at the back of my iMac. It looks like it's coming from the harddrive, like the fan of the harddrive or harddrive itself keeps rotating, i think it's the fan though because when i turned it off you could clearly hear the fan spinning and going off. Anyone has the some problem as me with the hard disk fan humming as wel l?

I have the same problem....I just ignore it.
 
imac 24"buzzing sound

This sound is driving me mad...so mad that I've decided to work in my sunglasses with the brightness on full. After reading tales of 3 and 4 replacement machines, missing pixels and dodgy sockets I guess I should be greatful for small mercies, but I expected a higher standard from my expensive purchase.
 
imac humming_ possible solution

wel...it doesn't fix it but makes it less noticeable. If you have your mac by a wall move it away from the wall gradually and the sound appears to lessen_ even with brightness turned right down. :)
 
i've heard different strange noises.

when i turn the brightness down, it hums a little. and when the display turns off for powersaving, i heard a little clingy click noise every couple seconds.

does anyone know anything about the latter of the two issues?

I have the click too as well as the hum. Both are really annoying. I was thinking about sending it back to Apple, but it seems futile since just about everyone is experiencing these same issues :(
 
ANyone found a solution for this. I am bring it in to show a genius tonight. Apple Care phone support does not believe me. I hate getting treated like i am an idiot. Apparently working 2 years in an Apple IT department doesn't mean much.
 
Well, I bought a 'whisper quiet' WD MyBook external hard drive. I now cannot hear the iMac as its drowned out by that!
 
I have the same problem. When my brightness is all the way down you hear the humming and when its all the way up you hear it also. But half way its almost gone. I also got another humming/pitch sound at the back of my iMac. It looks like it's coming from the harddrive, like the fan of the harddrive or harddrive itself keeps rotating, i think it's the fan though because when i turned it off you could clearly hear the fan spinning and going off. Anyone has the some problem as me with the hard disk fan humming as wel l?


This also afflicts my 24, but the hard drive fan is far more irritating than the screen hum. I have to really listen for the screen hum, but the fan I can always hear clearly. It is an annoying sound, but I think it is a mounting issue as it seems to cause vibration also.

Mine is a custom build, and I don't want to send it back to Apple, plus the nearest Apple store is over 3 hours from me, so I am stuck with it. I am sorely tempted, however to pull the case open and re-mount the fan. I'm betting it would fix it. I'm afraid it would void my warranty in case I had a major hardware failure. Hardware check does not see any issues with my machine.
 
I don't hear it... I TRIED to hear it, I turned it all the way down and silenced everything in the room and nothing... Just the click of the Hard Drive every other moment... Maybe I got a perfect model! :p
 
I dropped off my 24" at the Apple Store last night and they will be replacing the LCD (and inverter) to stop the hum. I hope it works. He is also going to try to replace my Logic Board to fix the BSOD when booting to windows.
 
I just bought an iMac 24'' 2.33 3GB 750GB 7600GT 256MB and i absolutely love it, however........I am allergic to noise, and I have 2. The first is the 'brightness' related issue, which I can deal with because I always have the brightness up at full, the second however is driving me insane. I am a computer engineer and I can only describe the sound coming from the lower left hand side of the 'chin' as 'a dusty clogged up old CPU fan' It is a custom iMac, so I don't wan't to wait for another one, plus there's the pride issue as my family are all PC 'fanboys/girls'. So, A; what component is in the lower left side, B; Can I fix it myself, oh and I live in Scotland, so we have NO Apple Stores!

HELP!
 
Humming after updating firmware and software

I just got a refurbished 24" imac and I checked for the brightness hum when I first turned it on and didn't hear it at all. After updating the software and firmware, I now have the hum. The hum goes away with brightness turned up all the way. Before updating the software and firmware, I even turned the brightness up and down trying to hear a hum, but didn't hear it.
 
Should I return my refurbished humming 24" imac?

It has the brightness humming. It bugs me. I originally ordered a refurbished macbook pro C2D and it had a high-pitched whine to it that was also related to the brightness. I returned the macbook pro and decided to go with the 24 inch imac. I already have a 20" imac core duo and it does not hum. Here are a few questions I have:

1. Is the humming pretty much the same on every 24" imac or does it vary from machine to machine? If I return it, do I risk getting a louder hum?

2. Is the humming heard on brand new imacs shipping now? If I order a new one instead of refurbished will it hum also?

I don't want to have to ship it back but I'm afraid it is a defect that I shouldn't accept.
 
I have the click too as well as the hum. Both are really annoying. I was thinking about sending it back to Apple, but it seems futile since just about everyone is experiencing these same issues :(

omg, the clicking drives me crazzzzzzzzzzzy. usually if i tilt the monitor at a different angle, or tap it a few times it stops, but it's only when the monitor turns off for powersaving!
 
the first generation olevia lcd tv had it bad. my 27" lcd hums bad. its because the speakers are so close to the power supply. best bet use other speakers besides the built in ones then you will be much happier
 
I have a 20inch imac Lately it has been making the same "humming" noise. I'm not to sure if it always did this and I just noticed it now. Or if it's something that recently happened after an update. It does get annoying since my room is quiet. I'm debating whether or not I should bring my imac back to the apple store. They might laugh at me LOL but hey I paid good money for my machine and expect it to work they way I want it to.

Does anybody have any tips to resolve the issue? I tried the brightness thing and it makes no difference whether the brightness is set low or high. Actually the only difference it makes is when the brightness is set low about 50% a weird clicking noise is added to the "humming" sound:mad:.

Thanks

*20inch aluminum imac
 
I do not hear any humming noise (low freq sound like "hmmmm") when I put my ears on the new 2009 imac but on my model (2008 imac 3.06 8800GS 500GB HD 4GB RAM), I do get a humming noise when I put my ears right beside the screen. Anyone experience this as well? It is not due to brightness as far as I can tell.

Otherwise, the machine is not noisy. It is not perfectly silent either. You do hear the fan and the cpu (if you pay attention) but it is generally not noticeable.
 
the post might be old but its still valid for most TFT displays for computers.

The humming comes from the capacitors (lower voltage) when lowering the brightness from 100% down to something a bit more reasonable and less blinding :rolleyes:

If you have a graphics card where you can change your brightness settings in your OS do it there and leave your monitor @ 90% or so

problem solved
PS: I do not have a Mac
 
My sony laptop does this >> I think I'm going to return it over that lol.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.